Terror in the Skies: Why 9/11 Could Happen Again
Annie Jacobsen
Spence Publishing Company
Hardcover
194 pages
September 2005

What essentially comes down to a padded article (Jacobsen initially wrote a piece that appeared on WomensWallStreet.com that then became this book), Terror In The Skies: Why 9/11 Could Happen Again is author Annie Jacobsen’s (terrifying?) account of her trip on Northwest Airlines flight 327 on June 29th, 2004, and her subsequent investigation into the events of that day.

“He had repeated what he said: We need to get off the plane. Something is not right.

All the passengers were now seated; the flight was full. Two ground agents, standing a few feet in front of me, flipped through paperwork and hurried the flight for departure. I watched Kevin think through his decision.

Suddenly, the man with the limp and the orthopedic shoe came rushing up from back of the plane. ‘I have to switch seats!’ He said loudly in heavily accented English. And again, he said, ‘I have to switch seats.’

‘Just go sit anywhere,’ the male ground agent told him dismissively, waving a hand. The ground agents left the plane; flight attendants closed the aircraft door. Kevin looked at me. ‘Annie,’ he said, ‘I need to fake a heart attack so we can get off this plane. ‘Something is really wrong.’ The wheels unlocked and the plane was now rolling back from the gate. I didn’t say anything. Kevin sat there thinking. The plane taxied out to the runway, and soon we were up in the air.”

Minus the prologue and acknowledgements the book runs about one hundred and sixty something pages minus the index in the back, so it’s a very fast read. But the prose reads like fiction and that’s where the book lost me. I’m not about to move into panic city, nor should you. There’s a difference between vigilance and paranoia, but I simply couldn’t differentiate between the two in this case. On the plus side, there are some astute observations and a chronicling of events prior to 9/11 that people who didn’t know before now know, and those who did know, may they never forget.